When I’m out of town (and not posting regularly) and my friends and commenters occasionally send emails to me that are for all the world posts that I would be making on PPM were I in their circumstances, the thought occurs; “I’m not posting… I’m on vacation – maybe they should write the day’s post?” Why not, indeed?

So after the last post from Mr. Ware, we follow with a post from Big Mark on an issue near, and dear to our hearts; Midge Ure playing his live North American tour at a Portland date. This time the guest voice is that of Big Mark; proprietor of the Charisma Records Label website.

I’ve known Big Mark since the late 80s/early 90’s as one of the Ron Kane Posse, and I’ve shopped for records with the gent as well as having shared a stage with him as well as Mr. Ware and chasinvictoria at the Ron-Kon II memorial event. So we’re re all brothers of the disc! Mark told me that he was intending to see the local Midge Ure concert I’d written about earlier here so I asked him to report back with his findings and here we are. Take it away, Big Mark!

MIDGE URE | ALBERTA ROSE THEATE | Aug. 25, 24 – by Big Mark

I saw your recent blog post examining works produced by Midge Ure. Coincidence, or did I in some small way inspire this? (Answer: he inspired this – ye olde Monastic ed.)

In any event, Midge (and sideman Charlie Round-Turner) did not disappoint. The show was totally fab, and I loved every minute of it, good enough to make up for having to sit through an unadvertised opening act of dubious provenance. He was OK, and it was only a half hour, and Midge was on by 8:50, and I got home bed only a tad bit later than usual, so it was not as egregious as such things can sometimes be. 

The “band-in-a-box” thing works very well, Midge going between guitar and keyboard, Charlie with a brace of keyboards and operating the “box” (a Macbook) to produce rhythms and loops and such, allowing two men to sound suitably bandlike. I’ve posted the setlist to setlist.fm (a resource any readers here should be familiar with?), and it appears to be a uniform setlist for the tour. I had not looked beforehand, preferring the element of surprise. 

I suppose “Dear God” was not a surprising choice for an opener, but I was pleasantly surprised to get “Answers To Nothing”, and then what I’d consider a deep cut, “I Remember (Death in the Afternoon).”  A rousing “Fade To Grey” led to “The Man Who Sold The World” following an anecdote about his version thereof having appeared in a video game and the game’s Japanese creator coming to see him about this, and how as a result of this, many young people learned what a “Midge Ure” was. 

Well, then it was on the U-vox catalog, and they did it proud. Hit after hit, with a surprise appearance by “Astradyne;” complete with an anecdote about American record company folks being horrified to discover that the album opened with a 7 minute instrumental, hence the US being the only country to re-sequence the album. (Ironically, the band signed to Chrysalis because the label had an American branch! – ed.)

Leading in to the Ultravox song “Lament”, Midge spoke of how he and the late Chris Cross would sometimes get away from everything to seek inspiration for Ultravox lyrics, which would always be the last thing done when the music was already recorded. One time they went off in a camper to the north of Scotland, and he spoke of how beautiful it was. “Even though I was born in a Glasgow tenement, that day I was a highlander! My Scottish blood was pumping!”

I actually hadn’t listened to much of this for a good many years, but oh my, this brought back in force how much I was into this music back in the day. The set proper concluded with a non-stop succession of Ultravox heavy hitters (Vienna/The Voice/Reap…/Lament/All Stood Still/Hymn). As for the “encore”, Midge didn’t actually leave the stage, explaining to the audience that this point they’d normally go off, wait while we cheer a bunch and then come back, and his attitude was basically, why bother? The show concluded with “Fragile”, which I hadn’t heard before but was very good, and finally “If I Was”.

Midge was in great voice, impressively so for a 70 year old man. The only thing I noticed was the absence of, as you mentioned, that final high bit near the climax of “Hymn.”

The recent (2023 copyright date) live CD “Voice & Visions” was available for a mere $10 at the merch table, so I was pleased to plonk down the readies for it. It is Midge with 3 backing musicians and includes a number of songs not on the Portland set list, including two real faves, “Rage in Eden” and ” Your Name (Has Slipped My Mind Again)”.
 

Afterwards, I had a look round to see what compilations might be extant of Midge’s material, and I found a most acceptable deal on “Soundtrack 1978-2019”, about $23 in the door. It was interesting to see in your post about the “Soundtracks” compilations that you described the DVD as “Monk bait”, as that was the final selling point for me in making the decision to go for this set. Nice booklet, track-by-track notes from his Midgeness. Then, when I saw your post about Midge productions, I saw the link to your post about that very compilation! I’m listening to disc 2 right now, which is mostly unfamiliar to me, but it is all sounding just fine, but I’ve had “The Voice” running through my head ever since the show.

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